Radical Transformation: Addicted to Love

One of the stray cats who found shelter in my home. All three cats have new forever homes now.

In the past three weeks, my household expanded to include three feral cats. As the weather warmed and the snow receded, these once-loved companions — not unlike their human counterparts — came out of hiding to explore the neighbourhood. With the opportunity of regular meals (of course we had to feed them), their shaggy coats and skinny carcasses are now replaced with groomed fur and rounder bellies. Unfortunately, their distinctly skittish natures have not changed. Even while enjoying a meal on my back deck they are on high alert, ears pricked to catch even the slightest movement at which they bound off. This, too, reminds me of our humanness, and how more than a full belly is needed to rebuild trust and affection.

Whether human or cat, once our fight-flight switch is turned on, it takes much time and a seemingly magic potion (love) to turn it off. As an instinctual reaction, the fight-flight mechanism was meant to enable survival in life and death scenarios. However, for feral cats and for many (I venture to say most) humans, this switch is permanently turned on. Thus every situation, life threatening or life enhancing, is treated the same — with mistrust and fear. We are left with the opposite of who we want to be and what we want to contribute — peaceful, loving and passionately creative people and societies.

Energetically speaking, we get what we give. As a global society, we are addicted to fear even though we know the negative consequences of that addiction — lack of self-control, self-loathing, anxiety, depression, any number of physical diseases, abuse, terrorism, war. When we think, speak or behave fearfully, we attract more fear and we create fear-based outcomes. It’s time to turn our addiction around and bring more love into the world. Frankly, this reversal is what our souls are calling us to create.

Whoa, you like to think that you’re immune to the stuff, oh yeah
It’s closer to the truth to say you can’t get enough
You know you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to love

Robert Palmer

Peaceful, loving and joyfully creative people and societies — it’s a big dream, one The Aquarian has kept alive for over 20 years. So how do you and I throw our hats into the collective ring and build the critical mass consciousness necessary for this radical transformation from fear to love? How do we finally give love its time to shine? Over the next several months, I will grapple with these questions and more in a series of Aquarian articles on radical transformation.

I spent the past 20 years of my own life journey personally researching this topic. I will share what I learned and continue to learn — we do not have to wait for a crisis and its accompanying drama in order to change. We can inspire ourselves to “be the change we wish to see in the world.” My research, initially triggered by a dream, became the fodder of my own radical transformation and spiritual growth. A shocking awareness that I was not fully living my human potential triggered the dream. Furthermore, I had no idea what that potential was.

So began my journey of awakening to passion, purpose and potential.

Image courtesy of keeratiwww.freedigitalphotos.net

As part of my ‘dream walk’ I studied spiritual and philosophical traditions — in part because I resonated deeply with Plato’s teaching “All knowledge is self-knowledge.” As I dug deeper within myself, I learned our life journey is none other than the road to self-discovery and self-mastery. The mystery we unravel is in transforming information acquired on our journey into useable knowledge and finally unifying wisdom.

Fortunately, my dream gave me a clue for moving in this direction — transformation is a continuous cycle of inspiration, internalization and integration. Thankfully, a subsequent meditation offered up the title of my now-published book on the subject (Creating Space: The Practice of Transformation) complete with all 12 chapter headings. And then something even more magical happened. For the next three months, I spilled forth a ceaseless stream of writing so prolific I had to limit myself to eight-hours a day, five days a week. On many days, I wrote in every one of the 12 chapters. No linear logic existed, but what poured out of me became the foundation for several books and evolved into my own radical transformation. As a result, I continue to meditate and write daily.

If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it. Yogi Bhajan

My subsequent articles will focus on the awareness, attitude and actions necessary to move consciously and compassionately through inspiration and internalization into integration.

Too much alliteration for you? Then what radical transformation would bring greater peace, love and joy into your life?

Helen Maupin, M.A., is a transformational coach, consultant, writer and speaker. Helen has written several DIY books on personal transformation, meditation and yoga (www.righttojoy.com).